


A Matter of Curiosity

by klaviergavout



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: (pls forgive me if peter is ooc ive never written him before), Gen, so this is a birthday fic for my friend!!! i hope they like it :D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 07:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5735395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klaviergavout/pseuds/klaviergavout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Spine is relaxing on a bench at the Walter Cemetery, watching his friends play together happily by the side of the pond, until Peter Walter the Sixth asks him a question.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Matter of Curiosity

It was a sunlit, peaceful evening, and all the world seemed still. At the Walter Cemetery, pink and amber rays threw up beautiful reflections on the water of the pond there, and surrounded the gravestones with a sunset halo. Crickets chirped out an occasional tune, and a few pigeons flew past now and then, blackened by the shadow their bodies made on the colourful evening sky. Reeds and cattails tipped to and fro in the breeze and, on occasion, a family of ducks would brush past them as they swam.  
  
As nature blessed the cemetery with its most serene colours and sounds, The Spine sat alone underneath a firm maple tree, and watched his friends.  
  
"Hatchy, y-y-y-you're it!" exclaimed Rabbit, slightly out of artificial breath, running beside the pond. Hatchworth was chasing after her, and it was rather obvious that they were playing a game of Tag.  
  
"I'll get you back for that, Rabbit!" Hatchworth responded, with a giggle. And with that, off the two went, shouting and laughing.   
  
It had been an incredibly busy few weeks, The Spine considered, as he watched the two of them. The Vice Quadrant- at least, to their knowledge- was safe from harm, and W.I.N.K was enjoying some quality time with the planet he so dearly loved. They would have never imagined, years prior, that they would ever have had the materials to go into space, much less the courage- but here they stood, changed.  
  
He barely could remember the old days, where they were nothing more than plain metal chassis with brilliant boilers, powered by something only the Walters at this point had ever tapped into. Of course, he still remembered the wars- no one could ever forget, no matter how hard they'd try. Clattering metal and whizzing shells and dreadful gunfire would forever haunt them, hiding in the back of their mind, prepared to pounce on them without warning. But as he watched those whom he cared about most in this world run carelessly in the sunlight, The Spine knew they were on the road to something better.  
  
"Heya, big guy." Peter Walter the Sixth had come up behind the bench and had placed his hand gently on The Spine's shoulder. "You gonna go join them?"  
  
The Spine shook his head. "Not just yet."  
  
Both of them, robot and his human, kept quiet and still, just watching. No one dared speak. At this point, Rabbit and Hatchworth had given up on their game, and were sitting at the side of the pond feeding the ducks; although the sandwiches in question were meant for badgers, the ducks seemed to like them all the same.  
  
It was a while before Peter spoke again, and as he did so, he sat down on the other side of the bench. "There's, uh. Something I've been meaning to ask you."  
  
The Spine raised an eyebrow, turning to face him. As he did so he noticed that Peter was still looking forward at the pond, and, with slight hesitation, answered him. "Go ahead."  
  
"I-It's. More a matter of curiosity than anything else." He laughed weakly. "I won't lie, it's kept me up a lot lately. What with the whole space adventure thing, and everything, you know?"  
  
The Spine did not know. But he nodded anyways, out of courtesy.  
  
"And you were the best person to ask, Spine, cause, well. I don't know if you've noticed this, but you're very understanding. You always know what to do and what to say, no matter what gets thrown at you. And that's a pretty good skill to have mastered."  
  
The Spine knew that this wasn't true, but because that was the preconception Peter had of him, he struggled to get out a response. "Oh. Thank you, sir."  
  
" _Sir._ "Peter chuckled under his mask. "Always with the niceties, huh?"  
  
He did not answer this particular remark, but instead looked back over where Hatchworth and Rabbit were. It seemed that all the sandwiches had been used up for now, and so they were amusing themselves by flicking water at each other and delighting in the hiss it made.  
  
"Anyhow, uh, I was gonna ask." He took a pause. "What was- what was Colonel Walter like? You know, the first PW. The big guy."  
  
Immediately after saying this he let out a deep, shaky breath, as if he had just accomplished something extremely difficult.  
  
"I mean, don't get me wrong. I know the stories. I know what happened. I just came a hundred years later, so I never got to know  _him._ But you three did. And it, it kinda bugs me, 'cause how do I follow in his footsteps when I don't know the next thing about him?" Peter sighed, his head tilted down. "I just. I'm sorry, Spine."  
  
The Spine shook his head. "It's fine. I understand." He thought for a moment before speaking again. "Peter Walter, he was... he was a good man. Sometimes he didn't make the best decisions, but under no circumstances was that out of spite. He founded a power source with so many different abilities, and never saw it as a way to make him richer, or to give himself great power. He saw it merely as something to experiment with, to use fairly in his robots. And that he did."  
  
He turned away from Peter 6 to look back across the pond. "He made us because he wanted to impress someone he loved dearly with our music. And, now, that's pretty much what we're doing. Impressing people we love with our music." The Spine paused, hanging his head. "It took us a while to get there, though. There were some really hard times after the first war. All we could do was stick together. And I think that was his biggest regret before he passed on, not being able to see us happy like we used to be."  
  
"You weren't happy, even after it had ended?" Peter asked, his voice soft and quiet.  
  
"No," The Spine said, sadly. "We weren't, for a long time. But we stayed strong, and now look where we are. We've come a long way." The Spine smiled as he looked on. "Thanks for helping us get there."  
  
Peter was silent for a moment. "Thanks," he said, his voice shaky. "Thanks, Spine."  
  
And he stood up from the bench, patted The Spine on the shoulder, and walked away to join the others.


End file.
